Ep 3. Charlie Foxtrot

In The Hot Zone season 1, episode 3 titled "Charlie Foxtrot," the tension rises as the deadly Ebola virus threatens to spread beyond Africa and into the United States. The episode opens with a flashback to 1980, when a group of American scientists first discovered a new strain of Ebola in a monkey colony in Reston, Virginia. Now, in 1989, that same virus is wreaking havoc in Africa.

Dr. Nancy Jaax (played by Julianna Margulies), a virologist and member of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), is leading the charge to contain the virus before it reaches American shores. She and her team have been sent to a research facility in Kenya, where they quickly realize the scale of the crisis they are facing. They observe a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) already on the ground, who are struggling to keep up with the outbreak, having just lost two members to the virus.

As the episode progresses, it becomes clear that the Kenyan government is not taking the situation seriously enough. They refuse to quarantine infected individuals and resist shutting down the research facility, even though it is clear that the virus is spreading there. Jaax and her team must navigate the delicate political situation and convince the Kenyan officials to take the necessary actions to contain the virus.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, Dr. Peter Jahrling (played by Topher Grace) is working to create a treatment for the Reston strain of Ebola that was discovered years earlier. He is frustrated by the lack of funding for his research and the government's reluctance to take the threat of Ebola seriously. Jahrling's concern is not misplaced; unbeknownst to most Americans, Ebola is close to home and rapidly spreading.

The episode's title, "Charlie Foxtrot," is military slang for "clusterfuck," and it aptly describes the situation unfolding in Kenya. Jaax and her team are facing resistance from all sides and are frustrated by the slow response of the Kenyan government. The situation quickly deteriorates as a plane carrying a group of infected individuals crashes, spreading the virus even further. Jaax and her team are forced to take drastic measures, including burning down a research facility, to contain the virus and prevent it from reaching the United States.

Overall, "Charlie Foxtrot" is a tense and dramatic episode that highlights the severity of the Ebola crisis and the challenges faced by those trying to contain it. The viewer is left with a sense of unease and the knowledge that the virus is closer to home than we might imagine. The performances by Margulies and Grace are particularly noteworthy, as they both portray experts in their fields who are frustrated by the lack of action being taken to combat Ebola. The episode ends with a cliffhanger, leaving viewers eager to see what comes next.